


Spiders and Tea

by arcanicEmbers



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, There are lots of cameos but I'm not gonna list them here, implications of past abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 13:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7363972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanicEmbers/pseuds/arcanicEmbers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Muffet is a cool aunt who talks to Frisk over tea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spiders and Tea

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally part of a larger story, but I didn't quite like a few parts of it or some implications I made, since my opinions/headcanons have changed over time. I did like this piece, however, so I took it and edited it into a standalone. I hope you all like it!

Frisk would by lying if they said they didn’t enjoy where they lived. 

Toriel had always wanted to be a teacher. She’d told Frisk as much back when she had first found the child. Now that the monsters and humans had reached an (admittedly slightly uneasy, but getting better all the time) truce, she had managed to get her dream job. Unfortunately, rent was. . . particularly high, especially to monsters, so Toriel had needed to get a second job.

And that was how they managed to open a bakery. It was two stories tall, painted a cheerful purple color, and the top half held a small apartment type area that they, Toriel, and Muffet all lived in. 

When they were at school, Muffet ran the shop. She was good at baking, after all, and she got one of the spare rooms to let her spiders build webs. It kept them safe and warm, and Muffet was around to baby-sit whenever Toriel had to stay late at school to make lesson plans or stay in teacher’s meetings. It was a win-win, at least for Frisk.

Granted, they’d had to get Muffet to stop putting spiders in the baked goods, but once they did that, she actually worked out pretty well. After all, baking took a lot of work, and having six arms did help with that. 

Not to mention it turned out customers behaved a lot better if they thought the cashier would eat them. Who knew?

Not that they had to worry about Muffet herself.

Her pet on the other hand. . . 

Good thing that one preferred staying in the webbed up room upstairs instead of running around the kitchen. Muffet was sweet and knew how to deal with rude customers, as evidenced by. . .

Toriel and Frisk were just getting home from school, and as they walked into the door, they interrupted a very upset looking human, who had been yelling at the petite spider monster. She glanced over at the two as they walked in and gestured with her left three arms. 

“Ahuhuhuhu~ There is the owner now. If you really want to complain about the food, you should talk to her.” Toriel sighed and patted Frisk on the head, before turning to the two, all smiles. 

“Muffet, would you go upstairs and check on your spiders? I shall handle this. And remember, both of you, it is Friday. We shall be having company over for dinner tonight.” The woman shrugged and walked out from behind the counter, pausing next to Frisk and grinning down at the human, fangs glinting under the lights. 

“Do you want to come up to my room for some tea? My pet does miss playing with you, ahuhuhuhu~” The child shrugged and nodded, waving at Toriel as they followed Muffet upstairs. Thankfully, Toriel was good at calming people. The irate customer already looked like he was calming down

Once they were upstairs, though, Frisk had to ask about it.

“Why was that guy so angry, anyway?” Muffet just laughed her strange laugh as she opened the door to her room.

“Hello beauties, I’m back from work. Look, Frisk came to visit with us.” The spider woman had to pick them up to carry them over to the little tea party table before depositing them on one of the guest seats, one of the few items in the room not covered with webs. They couldn’t quite master the art of stepping through the webbing without getting stuck, so any time they went to visit the spider, she had to carry them around.

“Now, as for the angry young man, he seemed to think that monsters such as myself should not be touching food he was going to eat. When he saw me carrying it, he demanded it be remade by a human.” She chuckled again as they watched the little spiders rushing to get the tea party set up. Frisk made a mental note to get some of the meal worms they liked the next time they went to the store, as a treat for the little creatures.

“I don’t think,” Muffet continued, opening the teapot as delivered by the strange muffin spider pet, “that he realized most of the baked goods are cooked by either Toriel or me. Honestly, I doubt he would have accepted one cooked by you, either, even if you are getting better at cooking. He didn’t seem the type to like children.” She measured the tea leaves and dumped them into the strainer, then poured hot water from a pitcher over them, before moving the pot into the table.

Frisk shrugged and gave the spider that delivered sugar to them a very small pet with a single finger, watching as it scuttled back to join the others. They used to be a bit uncomfortable around spiders, not that they’d ever tell Muffet that, but they’d gotten used to them before too long.

“He sounds like a jerk. I hope Toriel kicks him out of the shop.” The spider creature laughed again and reached out to pat their head as she tap tap tapped the fingers of a single hand on her table. It was a strange habit, but she’d once explained to Frisk that she used it to count how long to steep the tea. 

“Toriel will likely not. Unfortunately, since not all humans are as open to us as you are, we do have to be on our best behavior. If not. . . Well, there are few laws regarding us or our safety. Your kind forgot that we existed, and now that we have reminded them, they are taking it. . . better than expected, but worse than we would have liked. Does that make sense?” She picked up the two cups, poured tea into them, and offered Frisk a spoon, all while keeping her lowest pair of arms folded neatly in her lap.

The child took the spoon and the cup and nodded as they dropped their sugar in and stirred it in. A quick check to make sure no spiders had slipped into the tea, and then they were sipping it. It was good and warm, and they felt their shoulders relax in response to drinking it.

“People can be really mean sometimes, yeah. Especially to those who can’t really do much about it. I think it makes them feel powerful.” They took another sip of the tea, then looked up at Muffet. “Which doesn’t make much sense to me, because it’s not real power. I mean, real power is like what you guys can do, isn’t it? Toriel’s fire magic, and the changing soul colors, and all the other stuff. You guys are. . . really scary when you want to be.” 

The spider woman blinked all five of her forward facing eyes and leaned her head on two hands, reaching over to gently cup the child’s face with the middle set.

“We can be. Are you still afraid of us, little one?” Frisk considered for a moment.

“Not really. I mean, some of you did sort of try to kill me, but you aren’t doing that any more, so. You could probably make me afraid of you again, but for right now, no.” The spider smiled, all of her visible eyes closing as she leaned back in her chair.

“Well, I am glad that you aren’t afraid now. If you can forgive us for all of that. . . Perhaps the other humans will, eventually, grow to like us. Or at least will grow used to us enough that they won’t try to start another war.” Frisk glanced down at their cup, surprised to see that it was already almost empty.

“Do you really think there’s gonna be another war?” Muffet frowned for the first time since the talk began and tapped her fingers against her cup, a lower pair of hands clasping themselves together, while another idly lifted the teapot to refill Frisk’s cup.

“I don’t believe so. I believe that as long as we play nice, the humans will eventually calm down and accept us enough that they won’t want to wage war. Some of the others are not as sure, but we have all agreed not to start anything unless they do.” At the worried look on Frisk’s face, she smiled reassuringly and reached a hand over to lift their head a bit.

“Please don’t be worried. I really don’t think it will come to that, and if it does. . . Well, those of us who don’t want to fight will protect you, if you wish to remain with us. If you wish to remain with other humans, nobody will think the worse of you.” 

The child considered that as they melted another sugar into their tea. 

“The thing is. . . I don’t really have any humans to go with. I mean, before this, I guess I had some teachers that liked me, but that was about it.” The spider woman frowned again.

“Did you not have family? I mean, I know you choose to stay with Toriel, but. . . who were you living with before you fell into the mountain?” They nodded and took another drink of tea to hold off answering. They weren’t too keen on it, admittedly. 

“I guess. I mean, I stayed with my mother. My biological mother, obviously, not Toriel.” The child glanced at the door, then back at Muffet. “If I tell you something, can you promise not to tell anyone else? I don’t want them to get upset or do anything drastic.” 

“Are you not worried I’ll do something drastic?” She said, her laughed suddenly sounding darker than it had before.

“No, I just figure you can handle it, and you’d be least likely to. I mean, uh. . . Undyne might go spear someone. Papyrus still thinks humans are mostly good, and I don’t wanna ruin that for him. Toriel would get really concerned and maybe use fire. Alphys might mention it to Mettaton, and then he might bring back the killer robot thing. And-” Muffet finally waved her hand.

“I understand. You feel like it wouldn’t overly upset me, and I’d be able to resist the urge to go and commit potentially fatal actions. I can’t promise I won’t be tempted to feed whoever you’re going to tell me about to my pet, but I can promise I will restrain myself. It might be better for you to talk about it then not, anyway. Whenever you’re ready, go ahead dearie.” 

It took a few minutes before they opened their mouth to talk, time spent slowly but consistently downing the cup of tea in their hands. Eventually, though, they ran out of tea.

The child thought when they brought it up that they were ready to talk about it, but now that they could. . .

“You know, humans have had rumors about the mountain that led to the Underground. Mount Ebott. For as long as I can remember, those rumors have been there. They say if you go up there, you never come back. ‘Cause of the first six kids, I guess. The other souls Asgore had.” Muffet nodded and refilled her own cup again. How much tea did that thing make? 

“So I guess you might be wondering why I climbed up there, huh? I. . . sort of didn’t do it on my own. My mother brought me up there, and uh, when I got really tired, she told me to sit down and rest, and when I fell asleep there she left me there. It was night when I fell asleep, and when I woke up it was morning. By the time I fell down here it was night again. She brought me up there to abandon me. To leave me to die because I- I-” Their eyes were watering.

Through everything they had been through underground, they hadn’t cried. When they’d hugged Toriel goodbye, they hadn’t cried. They’d thought they might see her again, after all. When things had tried to fight them, they’d soothed them, befriended them. Sometimes they’d gotten hurt, but they’d handled it. Even fighting Undyne, who had been relentless in trying to murder them. After all, they could understand that. All the monsters hadn’t wanted was to escape the barrier, and now they had, and they were relaxed (well, as relaxed as Undyne ever got), and friends. They’d never cried once in the Underground.

But they still didn’t understand why their mother, someone who was supposed to love them unconditionally, had left them to die. The uncertainty, the wondering what they had done wrong, what they had done to deserve being abandoned, left for dead. What had their mother had to gain from that?

By the time the thoughts had finished running through their head and out their mouth, it wasn’t limited to watery eyes, they were starting to full out sob. They hadn’t been ready to tell this story after all, then.

Muffet shifted around the table and sat in the webbing next to the child, scooping them into her lap. Two pairs of arms wrapped around them, hugging them tightly while the third pair gently brushed through their hair. 

“Oh, dearie, I can’t imagine how hard that must have been. To have that woman treat you that way, and then have to put up with everything under ground. I realize that it can’t have been easy for a little one like you to have gone through everything we put you through.” She sighed and pressed her face into the child’s hair, humming an energetic little tune. It wasn’t exactly what they expected, but it did help them calm down a bit.

Still, it took a while before they had gone from sobbing to crying, to the strange hiccuping gasp that meant they’d finally cried themself out. Muffet released them from the tight hug and began to gently wipe the tears off their face. 

“Thanks. I think I need that.” They sniffled and wiped their nose on their sleeve. “I just wish I knew exactly why she did it. I think I know, but I really hope I’m wrong, because if I’m not, she might. . . she might come back and try to get me.” Muffet frowned down at them and, as she finished wiping away tears, offered Frisk a cookie delivered via spider. 

They considered it, then took it and nibbled on it. 

“May I ask why you think she would try to come get you?” The child had to think about it for a few moments before nodding.

“My mother. . . was all about image. She used to make me wear these really frilly dresses and stuff to impress company we had over. Dresses are. . . not exactly my favorite thing to wear. Uh, as you can see, I prefer sweaters. One time I refused to put one on, and she locked me in my room, so I missed dinner and wasn’t allowed to eat until the next day. That was actually a. . . pretty common punishment. If I didn’t get high enough grades, if I didn’t do any chores she told me too, stuff like that.” They sighed and rubbed their throat. 

“Can I have a bit more tea? I think I cried out the rest of it.” Muffet smiled gently at them and reached back over to the table to refill the cup from what Frisk now assumed was the bottomless teapot. 

It didn’t have sugar, so it wasn’t as sweet as they liked, but it helped.

“Anyway, uh. . . I guess some humans think I’m special now, ‘cause I’m an ambassador between them and you all. And, if she thought that would be something to get her attention, then she might try and get me back. I don’t think she can, since we handled all the legal stuff, but. . . legality hasn’t stopped her before. I mean, all things considered.” The spider chuckled again, and gently continued to brush her fingers through their hair.

“Listen, dearie. This woman can’t get to you through Toriel. And if she were to dare, then she would have to put up with the rest of us. Do you think Undyne would put up with this woman treating you this way? Do you think Sans or Papyrus would let her take you away? Not to mention,” Muffet winked two eyes at them, “most humans are afraid of spiders. No, this woman would not dare to lay a hand on you, for any reason, or I will be forced to rescind my promise and introduce her to my pet. We will-” 

“Frisk! Muffet! It’s almost time for dinner!” Toriel’s voice carried from the kitchen. Muffet held up one of her hands to check her watch.

“If you want, I can tell them you aren’t feeling well and need to stay up here to sleep. Your eyes are all red, dearie, and some of them will wonder.” The child shook their head. 

“No, uh. . . Could you just go down there and tell them I had to go to the bathroom, and I’ll be down in a little bit? I know how to make it go away.” Muffet studied them for a moment, then nodded. After depositing them at the door so they wouldn’t have to get stuck in the webbing, she set them down, gave them one last smile, then headed to the stairs.

Frisk splashed cold water on their face to get the red to go away. It, admittedly, wasn’t the first time they’d wanted to keep this type of thing secret. Yet another reason they’d been stuck in their room without dinner for a night. After all, tear stains weren’t the sign of a good little child. 

There would still be the faintest hints of crying on their face, but the red splotches could be from laughing and having a good time with Muffet just as much crying. 

The child took a few deep breaths, until their nose was clear enough that they wouldn’t sound stuffed up, and then made their way downstairs. Time for dinner.

Thankfully nobody noticed they had been crying, from what they could tell. 

Toriel had cast a few worried looks their way when they didn’t laugh quite as much as usual, and Sans had the vaguest hint of his scary voice pop when he asked if they were okay, but other then that, it had gone well. They reassured everyone that they were fine, just a bit tired from school, and the others seemed to accept that. 

Alphys and Undyne were both there, sitting next to each other. Undyne had one arm slung around the lizard scientist, who was blushing a bit, but otherwise not passing out. It looked like they were making good progress.

Mettaton was there too, with another bot. Frisk hadn’t seen that one before, but the way they held themself, the sort of shy voice, and the very dapper hat helped the child figure it out. Apparently Napstablook had joined their cousin in having a bot like body, which they were excited for. They were totally going to give the shy little spook a hug, when they could.

Papyrus and Sans were there, of course. The taller skeleton was making comments about how delicious the food was (second only to his own spaghetti, of course!), and Sans was leaning back against his chair, cracking puns, and occasionally glancing Frisk’s way with a concerned look. The child smiled reassuringly when they noticed, and hoped that’d be enough to calm whatever worries he might have.

Even Asgore was there, although he seemed still pretty nervous around Toriel. The woman was starting to lighten up around him, though. She still didn’t want to pick up where they left off, but it looked like they were starting to potentially become friends again.

Muffet had saved a seat next to her, which made Frisk feel a bit better. After all, the spider lady was the only one who knew why they were upset, so. . .

After Dinner was over, Asgore left. Undyne and Alphys were cuddling on a blow up mattress in the living room, Sans and Papyrus were sharing the couch, and Mettaton and Napstablook (mental note, ask if they could call the shy ghost Blooky as well), were in sleep mode and charging in the computer room. Toriel had gone back to her room, and Muffet had disappeared almost as soon as dinner was done, which left Frisk the last one awake and moving about..

They had decided to take a hot shower before bed, and it made them feel much better. The water relaxed the muscles that had been tensed since they were talking to Muffet, and it soothed the fears that had still been resting in their mind. Hot showers were good for that. 

They pulled on their soft striped pajamas and headed into their room for some much needed sleep. They day had been long and taken some unexpected twists, but all in all, it was still better than what it had been before they’d fallen into the Underground.

Frisk noticed something as they were getting into bed, however. There was a strange lump under their blankets. Hesitantly, they turned on the bed side lamp and moved the blanket. 

The object was a spider plush, about the size of their head, and with it was a note.

“I got my little friends and my pet to work on this through dinner. They finished it just before everyone turned it. It isn’t much, but I hope that it will help you through these dark times, dearie. And remember, if you ever need anything, my web is always open, ahuhuhuhuh~” 

They couldn’t help but smile at the piece of paper before folding it up and setting it down. Turning off the lamp, they tucked themself into bed and clung to their new toy. Some rough patches had sprung up, that was true, but today hadn’t ended too badly.

And Muffet had been right. All of these monster were her friends now, and if it came down to it, they would protect her. Just like, if it came down to it, she would protect them.

After all. . . wasn’t that what family was for? And truly, that’s what it felt like they were.

For once, Frisk’s face bloomed into a small smile. A big, happy family, just like they’d dreamed about. 

And with that, they fell asleep, the smile still resting easily on the little child’s face, exactly where it should be.


End file.
